DEVONIC FISHES OF THE NEW YORK FORMATIONS 3 1 



Orders ANASPIDA and OSTEOSTRACI 



Neither of these orders is represented in the fossihferous horizons 

 of New York State. A single species belonging to Euphanerops 

 longaevus Woodward is known from the Upper Devonic of Scaumenac 

 bay, Quebec, and the Osteostraci are represented by four species of Cepha- 

 laspis [text fig. 5], two from the Lower and two from the Upper Devonic 

 of British America. 



Fig. 5 Cephalaspis murchisoni Egerton. Siluric and Devonic; Herefordshire. Lateral aspect, restored by Dr 



A. S. Woodward, x 14 



It has been claimed by Professor William Patten that the genus 

 Cephalaspis is provided with a " fringe of jointed and movable appendages 

 (25 to 30 pairs) along the ventral margin of the trunk," the structures com- 

 monly known as marginal scales being interpreted by him as swimming 

 appendages or "fringing processes."' Regarding these fulcralike scales 

 it is even stated by this author that " there is little doubt that they are the 

 antecedents of the lateral fold of vertebrates," although it is elsewhere 

 remarked in the same paper that "whatever their significance may be, there 

 is apparently nothing known in true fishes that is exactly comparable with 

 them." ' The original specimens upon which these conclusions were based 

 were afterwards reexamined by Dr Gaskell, who declares positively that 

 they display nothing in the nature of paired appendages,^ and Dr Otto 

 Jaekel of Berlin is equally emphatic in his denial that the marginal scales 

 of this genus are not precisely what their name implies.* Hence it would 

 appear that the antecedents of the lateral fold of vertebrates must be 

 sought elsewhere than in the structures to which Professor Patten has 

 called attention. 



'On the Structure and Classification of the I'remataspidae. Am. Nat. 1902. 36: 388. 

 ^ On the Structure of the Pteraspidae and Cephalaspidae. Am. Nat. 1903. 37: 827-65. 

 sAnat. & Physiol. Jour. 1903. 37: 198. 

 ^Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesellsch. 1903. 55: 84; r/. also Science, n. s. 1904. 19:703. 



